Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ASYLUM SEEKERS LIVING in a Direct Provision centre in Dublin were accommodated in apartments with apparent leaks, mouldy walls and broken furniture before it closed last year.
Images seen by TheJournal.ie show the conditions faced by residents in some apartments at Watergate House on Usher’s Quay in Dublin 8.
The self-catering centre, which first opened in 2003, accommodated 52 asylum seekers before it closed last June.
That contract was held by Maison Builders Limited, to which the Department of Justice paid more than €1.6 million to operate the centre between 2014 and 2018.
An independent inspection carried out for the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) in September 2017 found that the majority of the 22 apartments in the centre were in a “satisfactory” condition.
The agency is responsible for the administration of State-provided accommodation for asylum seekers and suspected victims of human trafficking.
As part of its work, the RIA oversees inspections of asylum seeker accommodation, which are carried out by internal inspectors as well as an independent company.
The final report for Watergate House noted that eight of the apartments had some minor issues, including untidy living conditions, loose bathroom lights, and a broken extractor fan.
A previous inspection report from September 2016 shows that one apartment was in need of complete refurbishment, while a report from June 2015 showed that two other apartments were in need of renovation that year.
All refurbishments were completed within a year of the request.
Bucket of water
A complaint to the agency in March 2018, released under the Freedom of Information Act, alleged a number of issues were present at Watergate House.
The complainant, a member of a charity group that assists asylum seekers, described how they were “horrified” at the conditions in living accommodation at the centre.
“It is astonishing that in 2018 in the heart of Dublin, people are expected by the State to live in damp conditions worse than those in which most farmers would not keep their cows,” the individual wrote.
Correspondence described how a bucket was used to gather water from a leaking roof outside one apartment.
The author also claimed that damp conditions were causing mould to grow on the walls of one apartment, and how a broken washing machine led to water leaking onto a kitchen floor.
The complainant alleged that the group they volunteered with had supplied new beds to one resident after slats on their supplied beds broke.
They also told the RIA that the group had to re-tile a bathroom because the existing tiles were falling off a wall due to damp and mould.
Meanwhile, they claim a dehumidifier was used to remove damp from the bathroom, which gathered a litre of fluid every day.
“I and my colleagues have been horrified at reports and pictures of the conditions under which the asylum seekers are expected to live,” the complainant continued.
“We did not report it until now because the asylum seekers we met were afraid that their cases would be jeopardised by any complaint.”
No complaints
Within days, a spokesperson for the RIA responded to the complainant to describe how the agency had dealt with issues in two apartments in particular – one accommodating an adult and three children and another accommodating an adult and two children.
They noted that no issues with either apartment were raised in the agency’s inspection report just six months previously.
The spokesman told the complainant that a leak in one apartment was not raised with the manager until he noticed that the kitchen floor was damp, adding that the room was subsequently repainted and its flooring replaced.
The spokesman said the leak outside the apartment, where water was being collected in a bucket, followed a period of heavy rain and that it was repaired.
The spokesman also said that the mould inside the same apartment had arisen as a result of dampness caused by condensation.
“The resident has been advised on numerous occasions to open the windows to air the rooms which will prevent condensation,” they said.
The spokesman added that any items of broken furniture and appliances that were broken were replaced on a regular basis by the manager of the accommodation.
‘Raise issues’
In a statement, a spokesman for the Department of Justice confirmed that it had been made aware of some of the issues, including of leaks and mould.
“While the accommodation was under contract to the Department, it was subject to regular inspections,” the spokesman said in a statement to TheJournal.ie.
“In addition, residents could raise issues with the centre management at any time.”
The spokesman said that the Department of Justice has had “no involvement” with the centre since its closure in June 2018, but added that residents who were still in the protection process at the time have since been re-accommodated to other RIA centres.
A spokesperson for Maison Building Limited could not be reached for comment following multiple attempts by TheJournal.ie.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
A leaking washing machine wasn’t reported. No matter who the tenants are, they have a personal responsibility to report problems and open windows. Those pictures are shocking, no one should live in that but at the same time tgey have a responsibility to upkeep the property.
I hold a property that’s let out and there is damp in one room that needs active management and airing. We’ve had damp experts in, the room is in a bad position and nothing bar airing, and keeping on top of it will work.
@Motherofthree: do you contribute toward the heating bill? Take a look around the rest of the centre. What do you think happens when issues are reported? A bucket is put under them.
When Kildare barracks closed and it’s troops moved on to other barracks . The government used the same buildings that troops were housed to house people in direct provision.
They deemed it Unfit for human habitation.
Let that sink in Unfit yet it was perfectly acceptable to place our soldiers in this place for decades.
To The Joural : You are have lots of ‘non real’ accounts’ on here and it’s not good for the comments section in either direction. Put a bot in place to measure if the account exits really (tweeted or FB’d non-related news-content) in the last month..I’m about done with this site for this reason..set this up properly and it will work (people can have there opinions but whenever i back click on a comment the is an empty account) Sort it out people otherwise this will fail
@Paul Quirke: by that measure,your facebook account hasn’t posted anything since 2017, wouldn’t you be gone too?
@Paul Quirke: it’s been 18 months since you’ve done anything to your fb account therefore by your own standards you’re not a real account.
@Paul Quirke: Have you tried this? – https://i.redd.it/p0gftw9zgcl21.png
Failing that, here’s another better suggestion. – https://i.imgur.com/nR1NxPr.jpg
@Dave O’Keeffe:
so my quiet account compares to an empty account?
@Pixie McMullen: can you the read or at least tell dates apart?
@Paul Quirke: ever hear of privacy settings on Facebook? Stops strangers seeing what you post, it is why when you back click as you put it and there is an empty profile.
@Paul Quirke: huh? Can i what? What does that even mean? I don’t follow you mate, what dates are you talking about?
@Paul Quirke: you were the one that suggested the rule. It’s not my fault you don’t comply with it.
@Paul Quirke: Don’t be such a big offended tell tail… Ya big soft boy……
@Paul Quirkes shell or a fb account: Hate the game, not the player.
@Paul Quirke: there’s no risk of you being a fake account, as if you were you’d have been fired for terrible grammar and for talking nonsense
@Paul Quirke: I set up this ‘fake’ anon account for comments here precisely because I don’t want cyber stalkers like you clicking through to my real profile. So long as an opinion is validly held, what matter the account name it’s posted under? Have you ever seen forums like boards.ie and politics.ie?
@Paul Quirke: be quiet. I don’t particularly use twitter but set up an account so I can comment here. Just cos the page isn’t very active, like your own, doesn’t mean there’s bad intent. It’s just as alarming that people want to find out more about the commenter rather than just read what they say.
@Jumperoo: Precisely. Used to comment under my real account but had some loon who took issue with something I said click through, found the connection to the page for my small business and continued to harass me through messenger. ”fake account” since then
@John Connor: Actually had the same issue myself (only difference being I just have a personal page, not a business one). Some eejit sending me messages instead of replying in the comments section itself here. Also had a fairly loudmouth representative of a certain political party come up to me at a club hurling match one Sunday afternoon to try argue about something I’d written under my own name. Feck that.
I have a leak outside my own house over 2 years. Problem with the gutter and can’t find the same type anywhere. Terrace house so can’t replace it all. Deprivation I tell you
@moreshitetalk: First it’s outside your house and isn’t coming into your house causing mould. Secondly, it’s your house, your responsibility. Thirdly, you can get gutter silicone to fix the leak.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: nice, passive aggressive and helpful all at once.
@Thomas Sheridan: Irish tenants are living in worse conditions. Where’s the daily story about them?
@Whoswho: in most newspapers. Try reading them
@Whoswho: Wow. Rather than framing this as ‘us’ and ‘ them’ could you not see this as a problem for those in some kind kind of social housing? For what it’s worth, the Journal has often covered issues like this over the years. Dolphin’s Barn flats pre-demolition is a good example.
@Annie Citric: fyi, mould isn’t a problem confined to social housing, just their occupants seem less likely to wipe it off with warm water & cheap detergents
Is this the 6th story on Direct provision in last 2 weeks in the Journal
I often wondered if a homeless Irish person could arrive in Dublin airport and claim asylum. Surely they would have to go through all the correct procedures. It takes years to get a decision and in the meantime the homeless person would have full board and lodgings.
@RM: The problem isn’t the asylum seeker but the process that allows it to carry on for years. HAP and Rental Schema do house inspections and wouldn’t accept that for their tenants, making sure the “evil” private landlord pays for the repairs. On the other hand when its the government responsibility then it’s ignored. No one should have to live with mould, it can be highly dangerous to your health.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: a lot of mould is caused by drying clothes indoors and lack of ventilstion.
@RM: The issue of DP tenants not ventilating their rooms or property is as old as the asylum system. We live in a damp climate. If you don’t ventilate rooms and you’re drying clothes or using the shower but never open the window then you will have mould. There have been inspections by engineers, damp specialists etc and overwhelmingly the problem is one of poor maintenance by the tenants. Property in Ireland comes with varying standard. Some are better insulated than others. Active maintenance is needed where you have a habitual internal mould and this requires opening windows. Many DP tenants who come from warmer climates do not do this. No matter how often they are asked. Not everything is the fault of the State. Structural faults should be fixed as soon as possible by the landlord.
What would Rashers Tierney make of it all ?
Of course farmers wouldn’t keep cows in it, it’s a Direct Provision Centre…
@Alan Currie: That really tickled me
@Alan Currie: That really tickled me
@Alan Currie: That really tickled me
@Alan Currie: That really tickled me
@Alan Currie: and if they did – they would first wipe off the toxic mould
@Thomas Sheridan: I doubt it, have you ever seen a cow byre? Most of them are so ventilated with old slates, mould wouldn’t grow in the first place
@Alan Currie: I actually grew up on a dairy farm & would be well familiar with the power washer, lime wash, etc or whatever it took to make a place clean & habitable for the animals.
but obviously we didn’t have the option to moan on national media in the hope of others doing the cleaning.
Oh – and if you ever see a cow byre yourself (not that they exist any more) you will notice that all roofs are galvanized corrugated iron
All part of the gravy train. 1.6 million of public money paid 2014-2018 for this. Just like the grotty hotel rooms homeless families are expected to live in.
have your say